Graphene Oxide/Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Material for Use in Solid Propellants

An energetic composite material based on graphene oxide and ammonium perchlorate was prepared using a recrystallization method involving acetone and ethyl acetate as the solvent and antisolvent, respectively. This method resulted in the production of small crystals, where the graphene oxide wraps around the ammonium perchlorate particle to form a composite particle. The resulting composite material is found to enhance the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate over just physically mixing. Furthermore, using this material, bimodal ammonium perchlorate/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene solid propellants were prepared. The combustion behavior of the propellants were investigated, and the graphene-oxide-based solid propellant resulted in a 15% increase in the burning rate at a pressure of 80 atm over the baseline material.